As solid state lighting or LED lighting is being widely adapted in various applications of lighting and is becoming one of the great solutions to a greener world. Among various types of LED, a new family of LED capable of emitting UV radiation or light in a shorter wavelength than the visible light, also known as UV LED, has been developed for industrial applications.
Despite the fact that UV rays can be harmful to the health of human in general since UV is more energetic than visible light and is therefore more dangerous, UV has its unique application in the industry. Certain industrial applications utilize UV rays for curing a specific liquid and such usage of UV has shown merits in printing techniques and creating of protective layers on industrial products. Conventional UV lamps have also been used to curing an acrylic liquid or gel in cosmetic applications to facilitate the creation of nail arts and nail protections.
Known UV devices for curing a specific UV hardening gel generally utilize traditional UV lamps and bulbs. U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,541 “Ultraviolet Light for use in Setting Gels for Artificial Fingernails” to Shoemaker discloses a UV device using traditional UV lamps for creating a protective layer on human hand nails by exposing the UV hardening gel coated on the nails under the lamp while allowing human hands to rest within the housing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,551 “Nail Drying Apparatus” to Nafzigar et al. adopts similar concepts of UV hardening gel and traditional UV lamps but with an improved design capable of receiving both the human hand and toe nails. U.S. Pat. No. 6,518,583 “Optical Exposure in particular a Table Lamp for Hardening Light-Hardening Gel in the courses of Fingernail Treatment” to Henning discloses a UV device for human hands that also utilizes traditional UV lamps but by using more UV bulbs, the UV lighting area is therefore increased to cover multiple fingernails at once. U.S. Pat. No. 6,762,425 “Portable Device for Curing Gel Nail Preparations” to Strait discloses a UV device for curing gel applied to the nails of both human hands and feet and as the UV compartment and lamps are designed specifically to treat both hands and feet received therein, Strait is able to harden the UV hardening gel applied to not just the nails of fingers but also toes at once.
One major concern to the use of such UV devices with human hands or feet is the hazard of having human skin exposed to UV rays under these traditional UV lamps or bulbs of the devices for a short or long period of time that may lead to undesirable skin cancer in a long run. Such hazard is also known to be closely related to the fact that traditional UV lamps typically emit three types of UV light in reference to skin protection and these are UVA, UVB, and UVC. Among the three rays, UVC is the most damaging and is the most energetic of the three types.
Furthermore, illuminating devices utilizing high power LED module, including UV LED module, shall provide a desired illumination onto a region covering for example multiple fingers or toes all at once while preventing undesirable UV light escaping out of the apparatus such that an UV hardening gel may be cured by the UV light effectively and safely.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a UV curing device capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the known arts while providing a green solution to the environment with a greater safety to humans. Furthermore, it is also desirable to provide an UV curing device to facilitate the creation of nail arts and nail protections and in particular, an UV curing device capable of curing the nails of multiple fingers or toes all at once safely and effectively.